Richard Cordray, one of the few remaining Obama-era banking regulators, said on Wednesday that he plans to step down as head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau by the end of the month, clearing the way for President Trump to remake a watchdog agency loathed by Republicans and Wall Street.
Cordray’s decision comes just a month after the CFPB suffered a major rebuke from Republicans in Congress who took the unusual step of blocking an agency rule that would have allowed consumers to sue their banks for the first time. Cordray appealed to President Trump directly not to sign the legislation but was rebuffed.
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With Cordray’s departure, the aggressive regulatory structure put in place by the Obama administration in the wake of the global financial crisis has been nearly entirely replaced. The head of the Securities and Exchange Commission has been replaced by a former Wall Street lawyer and the Senate is moving to approve Trump’s pick to lead the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, another important banking regulator. The head of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., Martin Gruenberg, has said he will step down at the end of the month.
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The agency has been controversial among Republicans since its inception. Critics complain that CFPB has made it more difficult for people to get a mortgage loan and has overstepped its power to regulate some industries, including auto loans.
More difficult to get a mortgage?! How horrible. It’s not like that was ever needed in our recent past (oh, 2007, you say? That’s like, a million years ago…)